A seller who only sells on credit: is it permissible for him to increase the price?

The questioner : Regarding the prohibition of credit sales, the prohibition applies when the payment is deferred. We have a man in Yemen who only sells on credit; he does not sell for cash, and he increases the price of the goods. Is this included in this prohibition, given that he does not sell for cash?

The Shaykh : Why? Once we know the answer, why are we able to answer? Because I fear that your Yemeni is like our Kuwaiti. Do you know what he did? He used to sell at two prices: the cash price and the installment price. When the prohibition of the Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) regarding two sales in one sale reached him, and that it is not permissible to take an increase in exchange for installments—because that would result in two prices—he unified the price. He made all sales, as you say about your man, cash sales, but at the installment price. Did you understand?

The questioner : No.

The Shaykh : This recorded merchant sells for cash at one hundred dinars and on credit, meaning on installments as they say today, at one hundred and twenty. This merchant has a large car dealership. You know Kuwait before this problem arose. He used to sell at two prices: a car whose price was, for example, twenty thousand in cash, he would sell for twenty-five thousand on installments over a year or similar. So he started selling the car that he used to sell for twenty thousand in cash for twenty-five thousand. Up to this point, it is clear. For example, he had customers; half of the customers used to buy at the twenty-thousand price, and the other half at the twenty-five-thousand price. Now all the customers buy at twenty-five thousand. So he used to oppress half, but now he oppresses all of them. It is clear now.

The questioner : He does not do this.

The Shaykh : Clarify the situation?

The questioner : Is that clear?

The Shaykh : We now want to understand from this brother why he does not sell at the cash price instead of the installment price? Why did he unify the sale at the cash price? Why does he not sell at the installment price? If he did so to avoid the prohibition, as the Kuwaiti did, he has only added oppression to oppression. Otherwise, we need to know why? Because when I speak about this sale, I say that merchants, as he (peace and blessings be upon him) said, are the wicked, except for those who are righteous and truthful. These merchants, due to their injustice and wickedness, exploit the need of the needy. They increase the price for those who cannot find the cash price, increasing it in the deferred payment. If these merchants were among the exceptions to the wicked merchants, they would have exploited their trade to earn more reward and recompense from Allah than the one who stands in prayer at night and fasts during the day. Did you hear? They would have earned from Allah the Exalted more than the reward of the one who stands in prayer at night and fasts during the day. How is that? The Messenger (peace and blessings be upon him) said in some authentic hadiths: Meaning, if you lend your Muslim brother two dirhams, it is as if you gave charity of one dirham for the sake of Allah. So if you lend your Muslim brother one hundred dinars, it is as if you gave charity of fifty. And so you calculate now: this merchant, every time he makes a sale at one price, which is the cash price, but not the Kuwaiti cash price, pay attention, every time he profits multiplied times. Because this merchant sells for ten thousand, or twenty thousand. If he lends the car buyer twenty thousand, it is as if he gave charity of ten thousand. Glory be to Allah, a very profitable trade. But the love of this world and the hatred of death, which came in the well-known hadith to all of you, is the cause of the diseases present today in the Muslim society. And the other hadith is So the love of this world and the love of money, from whatever path it comes, is now controlling most Muslim merchants, except those whom Allah protects, and they are few. So we do not know why this merchant of yours does not sell at the installment price, which is a profit for him?

The questioner : He buys on credit. For example, he buys a good, a car for example, whose price in the market is one hundred thousand Yemeni riyals. He buys it for one hundred and twenty thousand for a period of three months. This one hundred and twenty thousand, after the period ends, he pays it in full, one hundred and twenty thousand. What is the ruling on this form of sale? He buys, he does not sell.

The Shaykh : Whether the seller or the buyer, my brother, It is not permissible. The Muslim society is interconnected, some of it with some.